THE RIVER RAN ME THROUGH

Whenever I feel like I'm in a zone, I get humbled my next time out. Yesterday, fresh from my third place tournament finish, I sat in on a $3-6 limit game for old time's sake and cleared over $300.

So last night, I'm back in the $2-4 NL game, getting nothing. I played a few big pots and each time I got killed on the river.

I held 98 on the button and a 9 high flop came off. Nobody bet until the guy before me made a token steal attempt, so I gave him a good raise, which he called. The turn was another low card, which he bet, so I raised again, and he called. The river was a 5. We both checked, but as it turns out, he was holding 63 and that 5 filled his inside straight draw. I couldn't believe it. I gave him every reason to get off that hand and he managed to suck out on me.

Later, the same scenario came again against another opponent, only this time the river was a J which filled buster's inside straight draw. It was beginning to look like one of those nights I just wasn't going to rake.

I flopped top two pair with my QJ and put a ton of money in before the A on the river gave the pot to the AJ.

My final hand of the night, I flopped two aces to go with my AQ. I went all in on the turn against the obvious other ace, who was forced to call. He held A7 and got the 7 on the river to end my night. Another $400 drubbing that I'll have to make up next time out.